I just hope they will introduce a true multi-ethnic cast this time, it's disgusting how Middle-Earth is like a white gentlemen's club. Everybody is white, most of them are men, and anything to do with 'black' is evil, right? In this day and age, that sort of thing is just not right.

Eriador and Rhovanion are only a small part of Middle-earth, and Aragorn's travels take him to many lands. There might not be much diversity early on, but there are plenty of opportunities as he journeys to the distant East and the far South. He is also said to encounter many Men in his travels, both good and evil. If you are not familiar with "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" in LotR Appendix A, I recommend that you check it out.

Season one alone could take Aragorn to Lake-town and maybe as far as Dorwinion. Or maybe the showrunners are only going to follow Aragorn for a single season and then change things up.

Last edited by Otaku-sempai on Fri May 18, 2018 4:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."

I just hope they will introduce a true multi-ethnic cast this time, it's disgusting how Middle-Earth is like a white gentlemen's club. Everybody is white, most of them are men, and anything to do with 'black' is evil, right? In this day and age, that sort of thing is just not right.

I know this is a sensitive topic, and 99.9% of the time I'd be right there with you wishing for better representation in entertainment media for minorities of all sorts.

Having said that, you cannot judge an artistic endeavor from the past using today's sensibilities and discounting the work's context, it's intellectual dishonesty. LotR is based on northern european myths and legends; and it is not an allegory (Tolkien himself has written on this a number of times), meaning that you cannot draw parallels between (for example) Middle-Earth's Easterlings / Southrons and "real" Earth's people from Africa and Asia.

Aragorn being white isn't a statement that claims all white people are Good and all non-white people are Bad.

Now, if an author was to write a fantasy book today using the same tropes, knowing full well how sensitive they are, you'd have a point.

Books were written like that, and don't think that changing some facts just to be "right" nowadays is OK.
After next 50 years this days "right" can be changed by different "right". Do we need to constantly adapt past to present?

This subject can be fraught with danger, so folks should tread carefully. The benefit of a written story (as opposed to a visual medium) is that people can find themselves in it mor easily. For example:

But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and birds.

(emphasis mine)

Might pass me by without remark or consideration, but a person of color might find themselves in that description. And a casting director might make a similar choice.

This subject can be fraught with danger, so folks should tread carefully. The benefit of a written story (as opposed to a visual medium) is that people can find themselves in it mor easily. For example:

But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and birds.

(emphasis mine)

Might pass me by without remark or consideration, but a person of color might find themselves in that description. And a casting director might make a similar choice.

Interesting interpretation, though I am certain that Tolkien meant that the Rangers were tanned by exposure to the sun. Dunlendings were probably darker still, but I'm not sure that we wouldn't have identified them as Caucasians. I think we would have to visit more distant parts of Middle-earth to find large populations of Mannish races of much different appearance (with the exception of the Drúedain and maybe the Lossoth).

"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."